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“Most film festivals are largely alike; Doclisboa—a well regarded non-fiction film festival in Lisbon, Portugal that just held its 16th edition—does things a little differently. Their focus this year, “Sailing the Euphrates,” for instance, followed a river rather than a specific style of film, country, or creator; whilst Luis Ospina—a revered filmmaker and cineaste in Colombia but hardly a household name in Europe—was chosen for the retrospective. In side-strands, attendees could see a new landscape film (Communion Los Angeles) paired with an old John Carpenter television special (The Gas Station); or films directed by French actor Jean-François Stévenin or by Spanish “anonymous-delirious collective” Terrorismo de Autor, to pick just a few varied examples. Eclecticism was the expectation then, and even the International Competition—a competitive, variable-length section consisting entirely of international and world premieres where traditionally more conventional, audience-friendly fare might be located—was, well, a little off-kilter.”
Full article on the international competition at Doclisboa 2018 on The Brooklyn Rail